Total Destruction to Your Mind
Friday night, I had the pleasure of stopping by Pirate Cat Radio in San Francisco. I'd describe the locale, but I'd hate to give up their coordinates, so I'll just say there was some speculation that preperation for an orgy was going on in the other room and leave it at that. I spun some records on Brain Dead Dave's show, and the one that got the hottest reaction was Swamp Dogg's "Total Destruction to Your Mind," from his 1970 LP of the same name.
Swamp was born Jerry Williams, and as a child he was a singing star as "Little Jerry Williams." He grew up to be an accomplished soul producer and songwriter for Atlantic Records.
Then, in 1970, he decided to unleash Swamp Dogg upon the world.
Swamp's music is straight soul music, dipped in LSD. His singing is like no one else -- I used to play his records back when I had a music show, and someone called in and said, "Who the hell was that? Sounded like Van Morrison crossed with Cher!" He's also blessed with an unbelievably off-kilter sense of humor, which he is entirely unafraid to display on wax.
The photo above is from Swamp's second record, "Rat On!", and it's typically ridiculous. Many of his album covers feature him in his underoos, which as you can see, is not an erotic sight.
Anyway, here's three Swamp Dogg tunes. If you like them, his website store has both "The Excellent Sides of Swamp Dogg Vol 1." and Vol 2. These are from Volume One, which features "Total Destruction to Your Mind" and "Rat On!"
Total Destruction To Your Mind
Synthetic World
God Bless America For What?!
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posted by Jesse Thorn at Wednesday, May 10, 2006
2 Comments:
Something kind of neat that gives a bit of conceptual continuity to this blog.
Milo Miles on NPR's Fresh Air gave a glowing review of the Gnarls Barkley album in which he compared their music to none other than Swamp Dogg.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5398607
I've been searching(half-heartedly I'll admit) for this song (Total Destruction) for 35 years.I first heard Swamp Dogg on the long defunct WNTN AM 1610(Newton Mass.) around 1971.Over the years I heard rumours of theguy(he lived inBaltimore,he had other music etc.) but I could never track him down.Thanks to you and the web I've finally found him.Sounds even better than I remembered it.
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